Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Last Monday, I finished a I-290B appeal of a denied I-140 Immigrant Petition for an Alien Worker of "Extraordinary Ability."

Yes, I know this is not a deportation matter, but I have not handled many deportation matters recently as my time is more and more being sucked up by commercial law litigation involving breached contracts and monies owed.

However, this appeal to the USCIS AAO (Administrative Appeals Office) in Washington, D.C. is interesting as my client is a Ph.D. Mathematician who is at the cutting edge on integrating computer technologies in the teaching of Calculus and differential equations. His focus is on allowing the student to "see" and visualize the complex relationships is real time so the non-mathematics student can work with real world applications, e.g. engineers, chemists, etc. Currently, my client holds the position as the Chair of the Computer and Mathematics Department in a prestigious university in Lebanon

The USCIS Nebraska Service Center Director, F. Gerard Heinauer, strictly applied the regulations in 8 C.F.R. § 204.5(h)(3) against all mathematicians and concluded that my client did not meet the definition of an alien of extraordinary ability in 8 C.F. R. § 205.5(h)(2) which states, "a level of expertise indicating that the individual is one of that small percentage who have risen to the very top of the field of endeavor."

In my appeal, I argued that the Service Center Director erred in not considering his field of endeavor as that of a mathematics education and not as a mathematician. Looking through that filter, my client can establish that he is at the forefront of this change in the pedagogical methodologies of how math is taught in higher education.